ASUS Unveils Z77 Wolverine Motherboard with 40-Phase CPU VRM

[btarunr]

If you thought the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 with its 32-phase CPU VRM was over the top, check out the Z77 Wolverine from ASUS. A design concept for the time being, this beast packs 40 (yes, forty) CPU VRM phases. The VRM makes use of compact chokes and driver-MOSFETs, with 20 phases on each side of the PCB. Given that it draws power from just one 8-pin EPS connector, the only idea we see behind this concoction is reducing load per "phase", resulting in lower temperatures per driver-MOSFET, perhaps even letting the motherboard do away with with VRM area heatsinks altogether.

ASUS insists that the CPU VRM of the Z77 Wolverine features Digi+, so we assume it uses the same EPU controller found on several other P8Z77-V series motherboards. The bottom half of the Z77 Wolverine is nearly identical to that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, including the layout of expansion slots (3x PCIe 3.0 x16, 3x PCIe 2.0 x1). The board's connectivity resembles that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, too. This include four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports; eight USB 3.0 ports (6x rear-panel, 2 via header); dual gigabit Ethernet; and 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth module.



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[btarunr]

Inb4 "needs more phases."

 

[HammerON]

That is an insane amount of CPU VRM

 

[ironwolf]

Captain Kirk: Scotty, I need moar phases!

 

[Splave]

but will it play crysis

 

[Xzibit]

Sabertooth
Wolverine

How many more X-Men is Asus gonna release ?

 

[cadaveca]

Inb4 "needs more phases."

PSh. More phases equals cooler operating temperatures. Notice the complete lack of VRM cooler mounting holes...this thing just doesn't need a cooler.

Nice to see both VTT and SA VRM dual-phase as well.

 

[Cybrnook]

Set Phasers to Phases

 

[zAAm]

This seems excessive. Pushing form factor to E-ATX just for cooler operating temperatures? :shadedshu

 

[kid41212003]

Asuck.

The weight of their boards makes me laugh, and the price is stupidly high compared to GIG.

Yes, I'm a GIGA fanboy.

 

[erocker]

Asuck.

The weight of their boards makes me laugh, and the price is stupidly high compared to GIG.

Yes, I'm a GIGA fanboy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eDfrMgFQM


I'd be surprised if they didn't have some sort of adhesive heatsink(s) on the board.

 

[reverze]

maximum phasing

 

[dj-electric]

Micro-chokes?

 

[pokazene_maslo]

This "who has more phases" war is becoming ridiculous! I doubt that this will run without cooler. I would welcome if they focus on increasing efficiency of the VRMs to reduce heat dissipation.

 

[cadaveca]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eDfrMgFQM


I'd be surprised if they didn't have some sort of adhesive heatsink(s) on the board.

Prepare yourself then. Nearly every single X79 board has VRM components on the board backside without cooling, and with SKT1155, they only need to push a mere 5 A per phase(5 A x 40 = 200W, double what my 3770K pulls at 4.6 GHz). Most of these components are fine up to like 110 C, too, so there really is no need to attach a cooler at all.

Adhesive would have to be some sort of thermal epoxy, which is not likely. It's cheaper to use plastic clips, and not worry about bonding issues.

 

[joyman]

Yey keep it up Asus - make me hate you even more. Keep making stupido motherboards and put more ridiculous prices on them. This will help the other companies do this too so we got many overpriced crap there to choose from. GREAT.

 

[St.Alia-Of-The-Knife]

All them Asus VRMs are making Gigabyte lose phase (lolpun)

 

[erixx]

same day other 'fabricators' also showed uber-VRM'ed boards... Who copies who?

 

[Morgoth]

Need more additional Phases

 

[cadaveca]

same day other 'fabricators' also showed uber-VRM'ed boards... Who copies who?

Nobody is copying anyone? Parts that make up a motherboard, for the most part, are designed and built by other companies, and companies like ASUS, GIgabyte, MSI, AsRock ,Biostar, ECS, Foxconn, etc, they all simply take those pre-designed parts, and then assemble them on PCBs that they have designed themselves, adding or removing features along the way.

It's only natural that all these companies are coming out with higher-quality devices, as that's the natural progession of things, you'd hope. Take IvyBridge, for example...it's not that much different than Sandybridge, merely lowers power consumption, added some features, and took others, like the solder for the IHS, away. This same general design philosophy is part of how the industry runs, and how they keep having new products to release.


Myself, I was expecting nothing other than AMD FM2 motherboards, so this is ALL good news.

 

[D4S4]

it would be cool if it had a socket for a daughtercard for "EVEN MOAR PHAZEZ!!1!1" with that exact lettering on it.

 

[SIGSEGV]

holyshit, 40 phases cpu vrm....

 

[micropage7]

Sabertooth
Wolverine

How many more X-Men is Asus gonna release ?

since x-men has many members so we could have more than wolverine
i wonder how about ironman, with sleek red aluminum looks and blue light effect on VRM

 

[reverze]

i demand 8+4 phase + active cooling for the realtek soundchip

 

[Steven B]

active cooling for realtek sound chip?

phase wars equal phase wars, at least both companies have nice 8 phase designs.